Haken thread v. "Evening With" tour (some set spoilers)

[nick_z]

https://theoatmeal.com/pl/senior_year/science

This settles the metric/imperial system discussion once and for all.

 

[me7]

It will turn Friday in New Zealand soon. Gentlemen, prepare your VPNs.

[gzarruk]

Already past midnight here, so I just gave it a listen. Quite different than what I expected from the snippets, but still very good. Need more listens...

[cramx3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8BpMBcwN8c

Definitely a bit different, Ross's vocals on the first verse and the outro. Honestly thought the song was pretty good and very diverse. If that's a good representation of the album, I'm very intrigued.

[NoFred]

Already past midnight here, so I just gave it a listen. Quite different than what I expected from the snippets, but still very good. Need more listens...

After a few listens, damn these guys have the Midas touch, this is good. If this is harbinger of direction album has taken, I’m on board.

Between this and Nightengale I probably like the former cause I’m used to it, but love both. Cant wait for this album

[jammindude]

Just the weirdness has me hooked right away.  And the fact that both of the first two singles are SO different from anything on V/V just re-enforces the viewpoint that those albums only sounded alike because they were born out of the same artistic vision and are meant to be viewed as a “double album”.   Obviously this new album something completely different and continues the pattern of them reinventing themselves with every new project.

I love this band so much.

[Zydar]

Ooh that was nice. I got more of an Affinity feel from this song, than the last two albums. And that's a good thing.

[Crow]

well, it's mildly interesting at least. ross sounds /really/ uncomfortable with those faster cadences in the first half of the song though, did not care for that verse

i'm probably gonna check out this album no matter what happens regardless, but my expectations are tempered, is all i'll say  really did not like virus much and haven't really /loved/ a haken album since the mountain, and this doesn't seem thaaaat far off affinity/vector/virus so

[Fritzinger]

Looks like this will be the track list:

1. Taurus
2. Nightingale
3. The Alphabet Of Me
4. Sempiternal Beings
5. Beneath The White Rainbow
6. Island In The Clouds
7. Lovebite
8. Elephants Never Forget
9. Eyes Of Ebony

[emtee]

NICE!

Intro and other parts are almost pop electronica but interesting and enjoyable. Main riff is badass and signature Haken. Production is superb! Props to the band, they are on a roll. Great song!

[ariich]

well, it's mildly interesting at least. ross sounds /really/ uncomfortable with those faster cadences in the first half of the song though, did not care for that verse

i'm probably gonna check out this album no matter what happens regardless, but my expectations are tempered, is all i'll say  really did not like virus much and haven't really /loved/ a haken album since the mountain, and this doesn't seem thaaaat far off affinity/vector/virus so

Bemused by the suggestion that this sounds close to Vector/Virus. Affinity, definitely.

I'm not sure what you'll think of Fauna. I know you loved The Mountain and didn't much care for Affinity. For me the album is closest to a mix of the two, plus hints of the other albums and some new ideas thrown in as well. E.g. Alphabet has the synthy poppy vibe of Affinity (and another song on the album has something similar although in a different way), but then some songs have more of a jazzy influence than anything they've done since The Mountain. So there's a decent chance you'll like it more than the last three albums, but I honestly just am not sure.

[Fritzinger]

Looks like this will be the track list:

1. Taurus
2. Nightingale
3. The Alphabet Of Me
4. Sempiternal Beings
5. Beneath The White Rainbow
6. Island In The Clouds
7. Lovebite
8. Elephants Never Forget
9. Eyes Of Ebony

Ok whenever Haken is about to release a new album, I become the super excited 16 year old me again who has to analyze and speculate about every detail that is known about the new release. So here's some nerd speculation.

I wonder if Taurus is an intro and Nightingale will be the first "proper" song of the album, like Clear/The Good Doctor, Affinity.exe/Initiate, Premonition/Nocturnal Conspiracy and Path/Atlas Stone or if this album doesn't have an intro and just goes right in with the first real song, like Point Of No Return and Prosthetic. Except for Virus, which was more of a sequel to Vector, every Haken album has an intro, and I would love an instrumental intro again, after the more "normal" beginning of Virus.

I usually don't listen to singles but I heard Nightingale twice because I thought it was a standalone single. I would actually love Taurus to be a 10 min monster like the first song on their debut as I'm not sure Nightingale would be the perfect first proper song on an album. But what am I talking about, it's Haken, so it's gonna be awesome anyway.


Also, Apple Music shows that the album will be 62 minutes long. With The Alphabet Of Me being 5:33 and Nightingale being 7:31 minutes long, this leaves 49 minutes spread across 7 songs. That's 7 minutes per song on average. Also, EMP lists the 2LP set track listing, where the first 4 songs take LP 1 and the latter 5 songs take LP 2, indicating a tendency of the first 4 songs being a little longer than the latter 5. So I think either track 1 or 4 might be a 10 min+ track. Again, just speculation. I think there will be another 10 minute track, which might be placed towards the end, so maybe it's Elephants. Lovebite might be the ballad/slower song of the album.


While writing this post, I found this press release:

If you’re talking about modern progressive rock and don’t bring up Haken, you’re doing it wrong. Since the south English sextet started jamming together in 2004, they’ve been one of their genre’s most loyal yet, simultaneously, adventurous forces. And how do you honour such an eclectic, unpredictable career? You make Fauna: Haken’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it,” explains singer and co-founder Ross Jennings. “They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”

Musically, Fauna represents Haken at their most diverse. Taurus commences the album with its scraping heavy metal chords, as polyrhythmic as they are jagged. However, Ross’s melodic croon and the triumphant chorus are true Haken. Eyes Of Ebony is pure math rock, delicate in its start-stop clean guitar picking and chiming cymbals, while Island In The Clouds flaunts its bouncing bassline. Eighteen years deep, they’re still evolving and keeping their fans on their toes. Is there any truer definition of what making progressive rock means than that?

This actually suggests that Taurus is not an intro, but does have vocals and a chorus Still, I wonder if it has an instrumental introduction, like Point Of No Return.

[me7]

@Fritzinger: the track runtimes are already public

https://musicbrainz.org/release/15342b5b-96fa-4763-aeb6-5a7ec6d8587e

[Zydar]

So Elephants Never Forget is the longest track, with 11:07.

[Fritzinger]

Niice, never heard of this website, looks like a great website to look things like this up!

Anyway, looks like their keeping their lengths of the last albums of around 7 minutes per song.

[MinistroRaven]

The Alphabet of Me official video:

https://youtu.be/LQJ-e75ZSj8

We're extremely excited to share our new single "The Alphabet of Me" - taken from our upcoming album "Fauna”, to be released on March 3rd 2023.

Pre-order Fauna here - https://haken.lnk.to/FaunaID

https://youtu.be/LQJ-e75ZSj8

#h7ken #thealphabetofme #hakenfauna #insideoutmusic

[MinistroRaven]

Vocalist Ross Jennings comments: “When composing and presenting initial song sketches, we very much had an “anything goes” mentality, and whilst sounding atypically Haken, it was a piece that was all exciting us to explore and integrate into our song canon.
 
Where the lyrics are concerned, I leant heavily on one of my favourite writers Philip K Dick, for inspiration. Keeping our loose concept of spirit animals in mind, I re-read ‘Do androids dream of electric sheep?’ (Which would later be adapted into the 1982 film ’Blade Runner’) knowing symbolically that animals played a key role in the story. This, along with revisiting both movies from the Blade Runner franchise, opened up some deeper philosophical topics about the nature of identity which have served as a backbone for the lyrical content”
 
‘Fauna’ sees the band exploring new ideas conceptually as Ross continues. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”
 
“It reminds me of 'The Mountain',” adds guitarist and fellow founder Richard Henshall. “There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna’s animals relate to us, personally.”

‘Fauna’ also marks the return of keyboard player Peter Jones, whose sounds can be heard permeating the entire album. “What Pete’s brought sonically to the band has played a massive role in why we do have a lot of new sounds on this record,” says Ross. “It’s always a new dynamic when there’s a change in personnel, and this is a fresh and reviving one. It’s certainly helped proximity-wise, with Pete being in the country: Pete and Ray [Hearne, Haken’s drummer] would be at Rich’s place and they’d just start jamming. That’s really key to how the songs start.”

[The Letter M]

Ordered the 2CD Mediabook from Burning Shed, as usual. The video for the new single is nice, I quite liked that song! Cannot wait for the whole album, which releases not long after my birthday, so Happy Birthday to me!

-Marc.

[DTwwbwMP]

Definitely an "A" for creativity and effort, but....................

[The Letter M]

Just had a fun thought... what if their next album after Fauna is titled Flora? It'd be another fun Vector/Virus situation and Fauna and Flora would be a fun duology.

-Marc.

[HOF]

The Alphabet of Me official video:

https://youtu.be/LQJ-e75ZSj8

OK, that is a very cool song and definitely has me interested in this album.

[Ben_Jamin]

I am quite excited to see what the theme for this album will be, and that album cover and name does not help my imagination much...lol. A possible theme could be since humans are in fact Animals, these animal characteristics are a part of being human. Hence the personification of the animals in this Fauna.

Am I the only one who is very fascinated in how the music will represent the themes involved? Because that is why I like this band, and why I like it is not just because they play amazing prog-metal.

I wasn't that far off about the album theme...

[gzarruk]

Just had a fun thought... what if their next album after Fauna is titled Flora? It'd be another fun Vector/Virus situation and Fauna and Flora would be a fun duology.

-Marc.

That be weird but really cool

I just want them to make a Restoration II at some point.

[jammindude]

Just had a fun thought... what if their next album after Fauna is titled Flora? It'd be another fun Vector/Virus situation and Fauna and Flora would be a fun duology.

-Marc.

Meh. My #1 draw with Haken is how different they are album to album. I had been really worried that Vector and Virus were so similar in feel and I was hoping they weren’t going to start repeating themselves. But I gave it a pass because it became obvious that they were supposed to be taken together as a single project. But now that they’ve done that, I’m not sure I’d want to see them reuse the same idea again.

[ErHaO]

That new song has a modern (2010's) pop music vibe/sound to it that I do not enjoy. I can't pinpoint exactly which songs it reminds me off. Don't get me wrong, this song as a whole is fresh and an interesting combination, but as with many things Haken, it is not for me.

[KevShmev]

Oof, I did not like that song at all.  I listened earlier and again just now, and neither listen did anything for me.  I put this band into the "try before you buy" box after the last two albums, and between Nightingale and this new song, they sound like a band whose good creative ideas have totally dried up.  What a bummer.

[ariich]

Oof, I did not like that song at all.  I listened earlier and again just now, and neither listen did anything for me.  I put this band into the "try before you buy" box after the last two albums, and between Nightingale and this new song, they sound like a band whose good creative ideas have totally dried up.  What a bummer.

Notwithstanding the fact that I obviously don't agree, I also find generalisations like the bolded hard to get my head around. But then I do realise that you've always been pretty picky with Haken's music - from memory you're rarely keen on their singles, and even the albums you now hold in high regard took a while for you to come round on.

For the album as a whole, it's hard to say who will like what. I think fans who, like me, enjoy the different sides of Haken's music should generally like it a lot and many will (I hope) love it. Those who like some aspects of their sound but not all, I would think will at least like some of the songs because of how varied the album is, but may not find much/all of it to their tastes depending on what specifically they do and don't like.

That new song has a modern (2010's) pop music vibe/sound to it that I do not enjoy.

I find this description quite funny because I'd say the only 2010s influence in there isn't pop at all, but indie in the form of Everything Everything. The strong pop sound in the intro is more Craig David (early 2000s), and the outro sounds more like Sting.

[Ben_Jamin]

I'm loving The Alphabet of Me...

Right from the intro, I knew this was going to be different. The keys here remind me of the same key patch used in the Fitz and The Tantrums song Get Right Back, I even think some of the chords are the same too. 

When the bass and drums entered, I thought of the rhythm in the chorus of A Cell Divides. I love that song and am glad they made an entire song off of a similar rhythm pattern and style. I also like that Connor is using a similar bass tone as well, it's deep and gritty.

The atmosphere, key patches, guitars, and rhythm during "a room with a view...retire from being used" are amazing.

I like the ending as well too, especially that trumpet.

[DTA]

Good for Haken. This sounds fresh and unique and while they explored some of these electronic elements on the previous albums, it sounds like they're taking it to a new level. I thoroughly enjoyed that, it's like pop music from another dimension.

[MinistroRaven]

What I like the most is the trumpet guy at the end. Some said it was Diego Tejeida in disguise.

[CrimsonSunrise]

Sounds VERY fresh and clean to me.  I love the intro and outro. 

[KevShmev]

Oof, I did not like that song at all.  I listened earlier and again just now, and neither listen did anything for me.  I put this band into the "try before you buy" box after the last two albums, and between Nightingale and this new song, they sound like a band whose good creative ideas have totally dried up.  What a bummer.

Notwithstanding the fact that I obviously don't agree, I also find generalisations like the bolded hard to get my head around. But then I do realise that you've always been pretty picky with Haken's music - from memory you're rarely keen on their singles, and even the albums you now hold in high regard took a while for you to come round on.

I don't think picky is the right word.  It took me a while to really come around to liking Ross' voice, and even today there are still moments and certain notes he hits (from those albums I now love) that make me wince a little, but the music was always to my liking in general, which is why I kept giving them chances, and they finally broke through.  I still don't love Ross' voice, even though he has some moments I really like, so it can be hard for songs of theirs to break through if the music doesn't really kick ass, and that could be why their singles are usually misses for me; a single usually has to have a great hook, and I am just not sure he has the voice to deliver a great hook. 

[ariich]

Oof, I did not like that song at all.  I listened earlier and again just now, and neither listen did anything for me.  I put this band into the "try before you buy" box after the last two albums, and between Nightingale and this new song, they sound like a band whose good creative ideas have totally dried up.  What a bummer.

Notwithstanding the fact that I obviously don't agree, I also find generalisations like the bolded hard to get my head around. But then I do realise that you've always been pretty picky with Haken's music - from memory you're rarely keen on their singles, and even the albums you now hold in high regard took a while for you to come round on.

I don't think picky is the right word.  It took me a while to really come around to liking Ross' voice, and even today there are still moments and certain notes he hits (from those albums I now love) that make me wince a little, but the music was always to my liking in general, which is why I kept giving them chances, and they finally broke through.  I still don't love Ross' voice, even though he has some moments I really like, so it can be hard for songs of theirs to break through if the music doesn't really kick ass, and that could be why their singles are usually misses for me; a single usually has to have a great hook, and I am just not sure he has the voice to deliver a great hook. 

Yeah I totally get that Ross's voice isn't for everyone. As we all know here, it's always been the same with JLB too.

In terms of Fauna, I mean I like every song a lot and love Alphabet, but on the whole I think the songs most fans will consider strongest probably won't be singles. Which is pretty similar to most of their albums I suppose!

[Zydar]

Which is your current favourite song off Fauna, Rich?

[Elite]

Which is your current favourite song off Fauna, Rich?

Nightingale! It's the only track I've heard so far